Updated October 2026.
This is a researched profile, not a first-hand account or a report of a conversation with Elliott Erwitt. Everything below comes from sources I name: Magnum Photos, The Guardian, Wikipedia and the description of the video embedded in this post. Where I give an opinion about photography, I say it is mine. Erwitt died on November 29, 2023, so I write about him in the past tense.
If you shoot on the street, or you want your pictures to carry a little humor, his work is a good place to spend an afternoon. He made photographs that look easy and are not.
Who Elliott Erwitt was
According to Magnum Photos profile, Erwitt was born in Paris in 1928 to Russian parents, spent his childhood in Milan, and emigrated to the United States in 1939 with his family. As a teenager in Hollywood he developed an interest in photography and worked in a commercial darkroom. Magnum says he then experimented with photography at Los Angeles City College, and that in 1948 he moved to New York, where he took film classes at the New School for Social Research.
Magnum’s tribute adds that he made portraits of local people in Los Angeles to earn money, and that the work in the darkroom included printing pictures of actors. The Guardian notes that he was fluent in four languages, which helped him while he served in Europe. Wikipedia and Magnum agree that he was drafted in 1951 and served in a unit of the Army Signal Corps in Germany and France.
The Magnum profile says that in New York he met Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker, the former head of the Farm Security Administration photography project. Stryker first hired him for the Standard Oil Company, where Stryker was building a photographic library, and then commissioned a project documenting Pittsburgh. Magnum’s tribute says Erwitt published that Pittsburgh series as a book in 2017.
SaveMagnum, magazines and a long career
Erwitt joined Magnum Photos in 1953. Both Magnum and The Guardian say Robert Capa recruited him. In those years he worked as a freelance photographer for Collier’s, Look, Life, Holiday and other illustrated magazines. Magnum describes his career as spanning three quarters of a century, with work for journalistic and commercial clients alike. In its tribute, Magnum says he was part of the agency for 70 of its 76 years, and that in the late 1960s he served as its president for three years.
The Guardian quotes Henri Cartier-Bresson, a fellow Magnum founder, who described Erwitt as working on a chain gang of commercial campaigns while still offering a bouquet of stolen photographs with a flavor and smile from his inner self. I find that a useful way to read his career. Paid jobs paid the bills, and the quick, observed moments in between were the part people remembered. That reading is mine, not the obituary’s.
Later he turned to film. Magnum says that in the 1970s he produced several noted documentaries and that in the 1980s he made eighteen comedy films for HBO. Wikipedia lists feature films, commercials and documentaries from the 1970s onward, including the prize-winning Glassmakers of Herat, Afghanistan from 1977, and credits him as a still photographer on Bob Dylan: No Direction Home.
The pictures people know
The Guardian lists some of the portraits and moments he caught. It names Fidel Castro and Che Guevara laughing and waving a cigar in Havana in 1964, and Jacqueline Kennedy in a black veil at her husband’s funeral in 1963. It also names Richard Nixon jabbing his finger at Nikita Khrushchev’s chest in 1959, Marilyn Monroe in 1956, and Jack Kerouac in 1953. Magnum’s tribute adds Grace Kelly and John F. Kennedy to the list of famous people he photographed.
The Guardian also tells a story about the Nixon and Khrushchev picture. It says Erwitt was furious that the Republicans used it in the 1960 presidential campaign without his permission. He sent a $500 invoice, which was paid. For photographers, that is a small reminder that who controls a picture matters as much as who took it.
The 1955 exhibition The Family of Man also shows up in Magnum’s account. It says a picture of his wife and young child, first shown there, touched many viewers. The same tribute mentions a couple reflected in a car’s side mirror and Robert and Mary Frank dancing in a kitchen as two of his most loved images. I am not reproducing any of those pictures here. They belong to Erwitt and Magnum, and you can find them on the Magnum profile.
How he talked about photography
Erwitt did not like heavy theory. Magnum’s tribute says he believed photography should speak to the senses and emotions rather than the intellect. It quotes him: “When the photograph happens, it comes easily, as a gift that should not be questioned or analyzed.” The Magnum profile carries another of his lines: “It’s about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.”
The Guardian adds more. It says he defined photography as “an art of observation” and “a biography of a moment,” and that he said artistry lies in “finding something interesting in an ordinary place,” which he found “has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” It also gives the line “Colour is descriptive. Black-and-white is interpretative.” and says his work was primarily black and white, though he could use color to make a point.
In the same obituary, the writer says he spent nearly 80 years behind a camera and preferred a Leica 35mm or a Rolleiflex medium format camera. Magnum says he traveled in France and Italy in 1949 with a Rolleiflex he favored during those years. That is all I can source about his equipment, so I will not guess at lenses, film or settings.
SaveDogs, couples and museums
Erwitt came back to a few subjects again and again. The best known is dogs. Wikipedia says they were the subject of several of his books, among them Son of Bitch (1974), To the Dogs (1992), Dog Dogs (1998) and Woof (2005). Magnum quotes him in Dog Dogs: “I don’t know of any other animals closer to us in qualities of heart, sentiment and loyalty.”
The Guardian describes two of his dog pictures. In one, a small dog in a knitted beret stands next to a woman’s shiny boots, with another pair of taller, clearly canine legs completing the lineup. The writer says it looks like a found image but was a shoe advertisement. In another, a bulldog squats on a brownstone doorstep next to a larger bulldog on its owner’s lap. The Guardian says Erwitt enjoyed seeing the world from a dog’s eye level.
Love and romantic partnerships were another theme, according to Magnum. Museums were a third. Magnum says images from MoMA to the Louvre to Madrid’s Reina Sofia formed his book Museum Watching, and it describes his curious, sometimes voyeuristic eye as working at its best there. The Guardian describes a 1955 picture in Guanajuato of preserved mummies lining a museum wall beside a young couple in ordinary clothes, and calls them as incongruous as their silent observers.
My own reading, which is an opinion and not something the sources say, is that these subjects share one trick. Each one puts two things in the same frame that do not belong together, and then waits for the viewer to notice. You can practice that on any street.
A playful side: André S. Solidor
Wikipedia reports that Erwitt created an alter ego, the beret-wearing and pretentious “André S. Solidor,” to satirize “the kooky excesses of contemporary photography.” It says a book, The Art of André S. Solidor, appeared in 2009 and that the work was exhibited in London in 2011. It fits what Magnum calls his dedication to portraying human emotions and his dislike of artistic pretension. It is also a good reminder that someone can take pictures seriously and still not take himself seriously.
Books, awards and exhibitions
Magnum says that in 1988 he looked back over his 40 year career and classified his whole archive, which led to many publications over the next two decades. The list includes Personal Exposures (1988), Snaps (2001) and a large special edition in 2012, plus themed books such as On the Beach (1991), Museum Watching (1999) and books on New York, Rome and Paris. Wikipedia’s list has many more titles, including Between the Sexes (1994), which Magnum separately highlights as a playful monograph about couples.
On honors, Wikipedia and Magnum both report the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal in 2002 and the International Center of Photography’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Wikipedia also lists a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship in 1994. The Guardian mentions a one-man exhibition at the Barbican in London in 1989 and several shows at the International Center of Photography in New York.
SaveA short video interview
The video below is a conversation with Erwitt, uploaded to YouTube in October 2007 by the channel photoinduced and about five minutes long. This profile does not summarize what he says in the video. The uploader’s own description says he had just received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the IPA Lucie Awards, that he had published 17 books by then, and that the video is “a brief conversation.” The description’s last line says it is his work that speaks for him. See the YouTube page for the uploader’s full description.
What street photographers can take from his work
These are my takeaways from the sources above. They are not Erwitt’s instructions.
- Notice first, shoot second. His own words are about noticing things and organizing them. A quick look at the whole frame, edges included, beats a fast shutter finger.
- Look for pairs that clash. A dog and a pair of boots, a couple and a mummy, a stage and a boat. The humor comes from the second thing in the frame.
- Change your height. The Guardian says he enjoyed a dog’s eye view. Getting your camera down at knee level changes the picture completely.
- Pick a few subjects and keep returning. Dogs, couples and museums fill whole books. A theme gives your pictures a shape.
- Do not over-explain. The Guardian quotes him saying the point of taking pictures is that you do not have to explain things with words. A caption can be short.
- Think about black and white. He worked mostly in it. Taking color away removes one distraction, so people look at gesture and light.
For a deeper foundation on people pictures, our portrait photography guide covers the basics, and the street photography guide covers shooting in the street. The guides are reading, not courses.
SaveWhere to keep learning
If you want to try black and white on your own frames, the Shut Your Aperture Academy has a Lightroom Editing course with 10 modules. You need to create an account or sign in to access the courses. For the film route, the gear box below lists two black and white 35mm films that B&H sells, Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP5 Plus (affiliate links, see the disclosure in the box). Erwitt’s own film choices are not in the sources I read, so these are general options, not his.
If you prefer to read, our guide to black and white photography techniques is a good next step after this profile.
SaveWho was Elliott Erwitt?
According to Magnum Photos, he was a French-born American photographer, born in Paris in 1928, who joined Magnum in 1953 and became known for benevolent irony and a humanistic sensibility. He also made documentaries and comedy films, and he died in 2023.
When did Elliott Erwitt die?
The Guardian and Wikipedia say he died on November 29, 2023, at the age of 95. Wikipedia says he died at his home in New York while sleeping.
What camera did Elliott Erwitt use?
The Guardian’s obituary says he preferred a Leica 35mm or a Rolleiflex medium format camera, and Magnum says he favored a Rolleiflex in 1949. I did not find a source for his lenses, film or settings, so I do not list them.
What is Elliott Erwitt best known for?
Sources name his black and white candid pictures of ironic and absurd everyday moments, portraits of famous people such as Marilyn Monroe and Fidel Castro, and his many dog pictures. Wikipedia describes his work as known for black and white candid photos of ironic and absurd situations.
What did Elliott Erwitt say about photography?
Magnum quotes him: “You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them.” The Guardian quotes him saying “Colour is descriptive. Black-and-white is interpretative.”
Is this a first-hand account of Elliott Erwitt?
No. It is a researched profile based on Magnum Photos, The Guardian, Wikipedia and the description of a 2007 YouTube interview. The photos of Erwitt are credited Wikimedia Commons images, and the other photos are my own frames, not his work.
